MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tokyo and London the most expensive cities.

Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world, and Asunción, Paraguay, the cheapest according to the latest Mercer Human Resource Consulting agency report which assesses cost of living and quality of life conditions in 215 cities of the world.

London is the second most expensive followed by Moscow and then Osaka and Hong Kong.

The poll basically compares the cost of 200 goods and services in each city including housing, food, clothing, entertainment and transport, taking New York as the reference mark with 100 points. Tokyo figures with 130, London 119 and Asunción 36,5 points.

New York figures in twelfth position, even when it's the most expensive US city followed by Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

In Western Europe, Geneva tops the ranking followed by Copenhagen and Zurich.

The spectacular exchange rate fluctuations of the last twelve months have meant radical changes for Latinamerican cities, most of which figure among the cheapest in the world.

Actually Latinamerica has seven of the ten less dear cities of the world including Santo Domingo, Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Montevideo. However the most expensive city in the region is Lima, Peru which rates 118 out of 144.

Regarding quality of life Montevideo figures second behind Puerto Rico as the best in the region, followed by Buenos Aires.

The world list of 215 cities is headed by Zurich and Geneva, with Baghdad the worst. Vienna and Amsterdam also figure among the top ten, but Athens has the worst health and sanitary conditions in Eastern Europe. The two most expensive cities, Tokyo and London figure 33 and 35 regarding quality of life conditions.

Montevideo figures 140 out of 215. Most Latinamerican cities figure in the last third of the list because of pollution and poor health and hospital services.

The British Mercer report is elaborated mainly for consulting by major corporations and their top officials.